Can My Friend Just Stop Paying His Dad for Parent Plus Loans?

Question:

Dear Steve,

My fiancés dad took out parent plus loan for him when he was starting college. At the time he emailed my fiancé and asked him to promise to pay the loans back in 10 years after graduation and defined what the amount of payments per month would look like. My fiancé agreed to his email back then.

Today, the Payments are as high as 2100 per month and my fiancé has been Paying this to his dad per month for the last 4 years. Is he legally liable or in a binding contract if he doesn’t want to pay this anymore or if he wants to pay half? Can his dad take us to court?

SQ

Answer:

Dear SQ,

The quick answer is your friend can stop paying. The loan is his father’s, not his. However, however the father wishes to handle this, including suing his son, is up to him.

The better solution would be for everyone to get together and negotiate a compromise so this all doesn’t land on Dad who was probably trying to do a good thing.